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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally aboard the USS Iowa on Tuesday in Los Angeles. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The second evening of Republican presidential debates has begun, with an early undercard match featuring four low-performing candidates who are all desperate to make up ground.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.) and former New York governor George Pataki are each in desperate straits: They just made the 1-percent-polling cut, and this may be their last chance to make a good impression on a national audience.
The good news: The last undercard debate in August showed it can be done. Former tech executive Carly Fiorina ran away with the first debate, showing a sharp wit and a broad command of issues. Tonight, she will be onstage with 10 other candidates for the main event, which begins at 8 p.m. Eastern time. Both debates are on CNN.
From left, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Scott Walker, Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and John Kasich take the stage for the first Republican presidential debate in Cleveland last month. (Andrew Harnik/AP)
The last undercard had seven candidates, but Fiorina was promoted, and former Texas governor Rick Perry dropped out. Former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore didn’t make the cut: He needed to average 1 percent in any three recent polls. He didn’t. But, Gilmore says, he will be offering his responses anyway on Twitter and Facebook as the debates go on.
While the undercard is scheduled to wrap up in 90 minutes, the main event could be up to three hours long. That makes a long evening of politics. So long, in fact, that it’s too much even for the most long-winded, indulgent orator in the Republican race: front-runner Donald Trump himself. In mid-afternoon, he tweeted, “Will be heading over to the debate soon. Can you believe @CNN is “milking” it for almost 3 hours? Too long, too many people on stage!”
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